-> Written by Creator/StevenLSears
-> Directed by Creator/RickJacobson

Xena enlists the help of four notorious criminals to go up against Ares and his ambitious young protégé Agathon.

! Tropes

* AbsurdlySharpBlade: Glaphyra's daggers manage to pierce a sheer stone wall so that Xena can use them to climb up.
* ArrowCatch: Xena in saving Darnelle's life.
* BatmanGambit: You may have wondered why Xena decided to choose her former evil proteges to help infiltrate a near-impenetrable fortress. It seemingly blows up in her face when Agathon simply bribes Darnelle and Walsam who out her location. Her reasoning becomes apparent when Darnelle ends up freeing her. Xena banked on Agathon to go down that route in order to be captured alive without injury. And it has the added bonus of changing the hearts of as many of her evil teammates as possible.
* BerserkButton:
-->'''Gabrielle:''' I'm not a little girl, and I have met some good men. I married one.\\
'''Glaphyra:''' Yeah? And how long was he good? I notice he's not with you now! Maybe he lost interest. Or maybe he decided to find another conquest!\\
'''Gabrielle:''' ''[shoving her]'' Maybe he was murdered!
* ContinuityNod:
** Walsim is said to have worked with [[Recap/XenaS01E14AFistFullOfDinars Thersites]], and he heard about Xena killing him.
** Xena secures some off-screen help from [[Recap/XenaS01E04CradleOfHope King Gregor]].
* DoesNotLikeMen: Glaphyra
* FakeDefector: Darnelle
* GenreSavvy: Agathon has shown to be savvy enough about Xena's tactics to counter them. He figures out that Xena only brought out Gregor's army to draw out his forces and he did enough research on her entourage to know that some of them are susceptible to bribes.
* IGaveMyWord: Agathon knows about Ares's fascination with Xena, so he gets him to vow not to interfere whatsoever. Ares, of course, reminds Agathon of his choice when it's time to face Xena alone.
* ItsAllMyFault: Xena blames herself for the way the four criminals turned out in life.
* MexicanStandoff: Xena's protégées are so suspicious of one another that they end up pointing weapons at each other all night.
* NatureVersusNurture: Xena feels she had a direct hand in making the four criminals who they are now. Gabrielle wonders if the same thing would've happened to her if they had met before the HeelFaceTurn; she also wonders if Xena still shaped who she is today.
* NoodleIncident: According to Xena, Monlik taught Autolycus a couple thing.
* OutOfOrder: This episode was meant to air after [[Recap/XenaS03E04TheDeliverer The Britannia]] [[Recap/XenaS03E05GabriellesHope episodes]], but a mix up had the episode air before them.
* SurferDude: Agathon
* TeethClenchedTeamwork
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman: Usually the weakest fighter in the group, Gabrielle has the most success in fighting the heavily armored forces. Justified in that her staff does blunt damage which is still effective against their armor while swords, daggers and arrows will have much more difficulty piercing their armor.
* WholePlotReference: To ''Film/TheDirtyDozen''.
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->'''Disclaimer:''' ''[[NoAnimalsWereHarmed No convicts were reformed during the filming of this motion picture. Can`t we all just get along?]]''